Stone Counting Method Example
Here is a step-by-step example of the Stone Counting Method.
This Example Game has just ended with two passes.
1: Note the territories
The players agree that
- White has two live groups, top left and bottom edge.
- Black has two live groups, bottom left and right side.
- White has two dead stones on the right, marked.
- Black has three dead stones on the top left, marked.
- There are no non-scoring points (dame, or seki).
2: Remove the dead stones.
In the diagram, the points where the dead stones were are marked with a circle.
3: Fill in the territories
Each territory is filled in with stones of its color from the bowls.
4a: Determine the winner by rearrangement
Now the stones are rearranged so that Black's stones are all on one side and White's are all on the other. It is important that at this point no more stones are added or removed from the board.
Now it is clear that Black has won. In addition, you can see that White and Black each have four full columns of stones. In the center, White has one stone and Black eight. Therefore, Black has won by seven points.
4b: Determine the winner by pair-wise removal
For younger children, instead of rearranging the stones, they can be removed in pairs. Remove a pair of stones, one white and one black, from the board. Then keep removing pairs until there is only one color on the board.
For example, the circled stones are removed as a pair.
Then the next pair can be removed.
Notice that it doesn't matter which two stones you remove, as long as one is white and one is black.
At the end, the board will have only one color left.
Black has won. Black had seven more points than White.
4c: Determine the winner by counting
Instead of rearranging the stones, they can be simply counted directly: Black has 44 stones, and White has 37. Black wins by seven points.
BillSpight: For real stone counting:
Robert Pauli: There are rules where filling is part of the game. That's what Bill is referring to. Vital eyes can't be filled then! If one side needs more, this can make a difference. In the case here, however, both need four eyes, so Black still wins by seven points (40 + 33 + 8 = 81).